Code Name Apocalypse
by RozalinaLea
Summary: It's been years since Pandora Michelle Kincaid has helped out with Project DESTINI. And now that Zimsky's called her up again, out of the blue...she knows it can't be good. The Core movie fanfiction.


Code Name Apocalypse

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

_Washington, D.C._

"Would you just let me in? I'm here to see Dr. Conrad Zimsky."

"Please, girl. Do you know how many people have tried that one in just the last half hour? I don't think so." I sighed angrily and tried to keep from punching the bouncer. I had already broken one of my rules, don't come back to DC. And I hadn't wanted to, either. But Zimsky was so persistent, I had just agreed so he would shut the hell up.

A couple of years had passed since I had left the FBI with no intentions of coming back. The first thing I had decided was that I needed to get an education. So, I had written a few topics down and reached into a hat, pulling out Geophysics. The next thing you know, I've graduated and I'm helping Dr. Zimsky and 400 of the smartest people build a government secret military weapon named DESTINI. Deep Earth Seismic Trigger INItiative.

After Project DESTINI was completed I mostly just traveled around the world, avoiding places that a 32 year old should avoid. I never settled down for long periods of time, until I had reached Utah.

I had bumped into Dr. Brazzleton, a mutual friend between Zimsky and I, at a bar. He recognized me instantly and began telling me about Virgil, a ship that he had been building. I had stayed in Salt Flats for about eight months before picking up and leaving again. That brings me to today. I had been staying in Denmark before Zimsky had called me over to the states. The matter had apparently been urgent.

"Pandora, there you are." Zimsky's voice derailed my train of thought. "I told you to wait for me inside. Why are you still out here?" I shot the bouncer a knowing look. He apologized for making me wait and let us into the club.

"So, what did you call me here for? You know how I feel about DC." I asked Zimsky as he wrapped an arm around my waist and led me to the bar area.

"All in good time, darling. Tequila?" I rolled my eyes at his good spirit. It was a contradiction from how worried he had sounded on the phone.

"Zimsky," I started after we had completed two shots of the strong alcohol. "If the only reason you called was to get me drunk, you could have just come to Denmark. I'm sure you'd have no problems getting a nice flight."

"Pandora," he sighed, his expression turning solemn. "I will tell you exactly what I told Purcell. I'm afraid DESTINI may have caught up with us."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"I'm sure you're familiar with the swarms of birds in London and the sudden deaths of thirty two individuals in Boston, well-"

"Zimsky, speak slower. I have heard, but what does DESTINI have to do with those occurrences? The news said that those events were isolated and not a threat to society."

"You listen to that PR shit? Anyways, listen to me. Earlier today, a boy came up to me after my speech at the Academy of Science. Dr. Joshua Keyes. He had researched on a topic, and he wanted to see if his suspicions on the topic in question were confirmed. They were."

"What topic? What suspicions?"

"The end of the world, Pandora." Thank god I wasn't drinking, because I could have choked right then. Oh, shit. Not again. Not another apocalypse. I allowed my thoughts to process before responding.

"But why me? There were 399 other people working on Project DESTINI. Why did you seek me out, specifically?"

"Because, I know that you are a veteran of the previous apocalypse. And also because you are one of the few people I know that I can trust." Zimsky admitted, and I smiled.

"Aw! I can trust you too!" I giggled. Eh, blame it on the alcohol. But he barely showed any emotion other than annoyance or anger, and when he did, I would tease him to no end.

"Pandora, I'm serious. You cannot breathe one word of this to anyone except those authorized to know."

"So I'm, as you say, 'Authorized' to know?"

"How would I know? You're security clearance is higher than mine." I smirked. My security clearance was one of the few things about me that annoyed Zimsky, but he loved me nonetheless.

"I don't know, is it, Mr. Scientist?"

"I think you do, Ms. FBI."

"Ex FBI," I reminded him. After that we quit messing around and got down to business. Zimsky explained the problem to me in depth for the next thirty minutes. I just sat, wide eyed, through the whole thing.

"But that's impossible! The core could _not_ have just stopped spinning. There are a whole lot of factors that have to come into play before-oh shit. DESTINI caused this. Am I correct?"

"You are." We sat in silence as the realization hit me completely. Sure, I'd survived one apocalypse, The Zombie Apocalypse. But this one was different. We couldn't stop this one. We were completely powerless.

"You going to see your family one last time?"

"I don't think so." I answered, blinking back tears. As if some invisible force had taken over Zimsky, anger clouded his eyes and he suddenly stood, pulling me up to my feet.

"No. we can stop this, somehow. Come on, let's go." I had a strange feeling that Zimsky was doing this for me. He hadn't changed one bit; he still couldn't stand to see me upset.

"Where are we going?"

"The Pentagon." He answered firmly, dragging me out of the club and to his car. As I looked up at the Northern Lights which danced across the sky, I knew that Zimsky wasn't going to stop until we found a way to heal our broken planet. Hey, where there's a will, there's a way.

Chapter 2: Plans

_The Pentagon_

Zimsky and I sat in the crowd of military personnel and various scientists. We had explained the issue to Purcell, and were now waiting for Dr. Keyes to arrive to explain, since it was his research. Zimsky had shocked me when he gave Josh the honor; I knew he had no problem stealing Braz's research. What was so different about this guy?

I knew as well as most everyone else that Zimsky could be a cynical ass. I had seen that sign of him plenty of times, but never directed at moi. He treated _me _like an actual person. It had confused me, but I didn't question it. Never poke the sleeping bear.

The doors opened then, and I saw two agents lead a man, who I assumed to be Dr. Joshua Keyes, into the meeting room. He looked quite nervous at the prospect of telling everyone that the earth had a deadline all by himself.

"Dr. Keyes, welcome." Purcell greeted the shaky professor.

"Thank you." Josh responded sounding nervous.

"Dr. Zimsky informs us that you made a useful contribution to his investigations, so he wanted you to assist him in the briefing."

"That's very generous of you, Dr. Zimsky." Josh bowed his head in mock respect. Well, two minutes in and he's already sassed Zimsky. I'll admit, the boy has balls.

"Science is a selfless business dear boy." Zimsky shot back and I giggled, knowing that his sarcasm will always beat everyone else's. Purcell glared at me and I became silent. "Now why don't you begin and I'll fill in all the difficult bits."

"All right, I'll put this as simply as I can." he paused, then sighed and finished. "Everybody on Earth is dead in a year." Zimsky took my hand in his again as I witnessed the re-telling of this story.

"And let me explain why. Wrapped around the Earth is an invisible field of energy. It's made up of electricity and magnetism. So it's called -creatively enough- the electromagnetic field. It's where we get our magnetic North Pole and South Pole, and it protects us from cosmic radiation. So this EM field is our friend."

"But now?" Purcell asked.

"But now, that field is falling apart." Zimsky spoke up.

"Why?" someone asked.

"Why?" Josh repeated. He walked over to a table holding fruit and picked up a peach and started to cut it in half. "Does somebody have a can of air freshener?" I became confused as Purcell commanded that such an item be brought. "The thin skin, that's the Earth's crust. That's what we live on. Its thirty miles thick. The meat here is the mantle. And forgetting all the funky transitions, it's two thousand miles thick. The core, the peach pit in the center...that's a tricky one. There's two parts. The inner core, and the outer core. Are you following me?" some nodded. This kid was doing okay.

"The inner core is, uh...well, it's a big, solid chunk of iron, we think. That's surrounded by the outer core, and that is liquid."

"Yes but," Zimsky interjected. "Most importantly, this liquid is constantly spinning in one direction. So a trillion tons of hot metal spinning at a thousand miles an hour, so..." he motioned for Josh to keep going. Already familiar with the science of the matter, I pulled out my cell phone and began to half listen.

"Right, so Physics 101-hot metal moving makes an electromagnetic field. This spinning liquid inner core is the engine that drives the EM field. And that's where we have our problem."

"This engine has stalled." Zimsky interrupted once again. Purcell looked at him, spotting me and my cell phone. I grinned sheepishly and put it away. "The core of the Earth has stopped spinning."

"How could this have happened?" Purcell asked. I fought back a laugh. Zimsky and I shot Purcell a look that clearly said, 'you know how, moron'. "What's the timeline here?"

Josh shrugged his shoulders. "As the EM field becomes more and more unstable, we'll start seeing isolated incidents. One plane will fall from the sky, and then two, and then...in a few months, anything-everything electronic will be fried."

"Static discharges in the atmosphere will create 'Super-storms' with hundreds of lightning strikes per square mile." I added, getting in on the conversation.

"After that, it gets bad." Josh nodded at me, prompting me to continue for him. I stood up and walked to the front of the room and stood next to Josh.

"The Earth's EM field shields us from the solar winds, which are a lethal blend of radioactive particles and microwaves. When that shield collapses, microwave radiation will literally cook our planet."

"Got a lighter?" I nodded and took mine out of my pocket. I stood beside Josh with the air freshener can and another peach, whole, on a barbeque fork. "This is the sun." Josh announced, shaking the can. "This is the earth..." he waved the peach around. "Without the EM field." He turned to me. "Would you?"

"Mm-hmm." I flicked the lighter on. Josh let lose the air freshener, and everyone watched uncomfortably as the peach was roasted by the flames. When it was finished, the peach still burned. "Three months, and we're back in the Stone Age. A full year, the field collapses, and that." Silence.

Josh walked over to a pitcher of water. "May I?" he dropped the burned peach inside and walked away. "Feel free to throw up. I know I did."

"So," Purcell came in. "How do we fix it?" I walked back to my seat.

"We can't."

"Not in my vocabulary." the General argued. Now, I was pissed. I was up to here with Purcell's stupidity. Before Zimsky could stop me, I shot straight out of my seat and stomped over to Purcell.

"Then you might want to get one of those word-a-day calendars, _General_, because it's _impossible_." Purcell looked as though he had never been so insulted in his life. I could care less. "The core is the size of Mars. You're talking about jumpstarting a freaking planet! This is a super-heated hyper-fluid of molten iron and nickel at nine thousand degrees Fahrenheit, two thousand miles down, a thousand miles thick. And the deepest we've ever been is...seven miles, with a two inch drill bit."

"If we can go into space, we can certainly-"

"Space is easy!" I threw my hands up into the air in exasperation and walked back to the front of the front of the room. "It's empty. We're talking about millions of pounds of pressure per square inch. Even if we somehow came up with a brilliant plan to fix the core, we just can't _get there_!"

"Yes, but..." Zimsky interrupted my rant and everyone turned to look him. "...what if we could?" he looked at me expectantly and I suddenly knew what he was thinking.

Braz.

Chapter 3: The King of the Desert

_Salt Flats, Utah_

As our military helicopter flew over the vast desert, I felt nostalgic; I couldn't wait to see my old friend again. Granted, with Zimsky with us, our reunion would be short lived and end with them getting into an argument. On our way over we had stopped to pick up one of Josh's friends, known as Serge. He specialized in geological weapons.

We left the security of the chopper and came across a large metal building that I was very familiar with. Braz walked out when he saw us and walked over to greet us. I got a big hug, but Zimsky got a glare.

"Hello, Braz." Zimsky greeted cheerfully while lighting a cigarette. Braz shook his head and laughed.

"Why the hell aren't you dead yet? Okay, this way." I laughed.

"Well, that went better than I expected." Zimsky stated. "Ya' think?" I whispered and threw my hair into a ponytail.

"Doctor Brazzleton, I see you know Doctor Zimsky and Doctor Kincaid." Purcell stated as we walked towards the hangar.

"Yeah. Twenty years ago he stole my research. After that we kind of lost touch. Pandora stayed with me a while and helped me with this ship. I stayed in touch with her." I smiled at the recognition.

"Research that was equally mine." That's my Zimsky. Always focused on himself.

"That's funny, I don't remember a check from any of the patents."

"All right, Braz. Twenty years in the desert makes you a prophet and a martyr." Zimsky changed the subject. "Look, we're here about you're legendary ship."

"Okay," Braz started to explain as he uncovered what appeared to be a high powered Gatling gun. "I'm combining high frequency pulse lasers with resonance tube ultrasonics. Um, if you've ever seen ultrasonic waves break up a kidney stone on the Discovery Channel, it's the same deal here. You can put your helmets on now." Braz warned. We did so immediately. "Firing."

As a beam of light tore through the air and into the rock like structure, we were all knocked backwards. Braz turned off the lazar and noticed us now sprawled out on the ground. "Oh," he stated.

"Yeah, oh." I said angrily to where only Zimsky could hear. He chuckled and helped me to my feet. We made our way over to the 70 foot hole that reached all the way through the rock to the other side.

"So, all right." Zimsky stated. "So you've made some progress with the engine, we'll grant you. Have you begun to think about a shell?"

I put my sun glasses back on as Zimsky stared questioningly at the 'engine'. "Okay this, is Alex." said Braz, introducing us to the small white lab mouse. Alex was placed in an odd black box with some rough covering. Josh laughed as Zimsky merely eyed the procedure with critical skepticism. "Okay, here we have a concrete block, and in back of that we have a two-inch steel plate." Nodding, we all moved to put our safety goggles on. "And we are...firing."

Braz started up a similar looking "engine". A beam of light shot into the block but didn't touch it. The cement block dissolved as well as the two inch steel plate, instantly. A board covering past attempts with the weapon fell. When all was finished, Braz moved forward and pulled Alex forth from the black box, alive and completely untouched.

"Voila!"

Josh ripped his protective eyewear from his head, his face contorted into complete surprise and wonder. "That's..."

"That's impossible!" Serge completed his statement.

Purcell shook his head. "The applications for this are just..." he couldn't finish. Serge picked up the box and inspected it. "What do you call this material?"

"Well its real name has thirty seven syllables. I call it Unobtainium."

"Unobtainium?" Josh laughed.

"Mm-hmm. The Unobtainium will take the heat and the pressure and transform it to energy, which in turn, reinforces the shell of the ship, you see." Braz went around adjusting large construction projects. This part of the hanger was obscenely darker than the others. He pulled a canvas down which in turn sent a large bird flying to the ground.

"This...is Johnson don't mind him." Braz stated, pointing to the obviously annoyed bird. The canvas that Braz had been pulling down revealed the designs of a cage like work area. He stood in the center of it, explaining excitedly what it was we were seeing.

"Excuse me, Doctor Brazzleton," Serge stepped forward. "...when do you think this ship will be operational?" Braz started to move his hands around, mentally doing the math and statistics.

"When I get my fabrication methods perfected...twelve...ten years, ten years."

"What would it take to get it done in three months?" Purcell asked.

Braz started to laugh. "Fifteen billion dollars. I..."

"Will you take a check?" Braz stared at the General in amazement. I leaned over to Purcell. "Why don't you use a credit card? You get miles."

Believe it or not, Purcell actually laughed.

_Washington, DC_

"Theodore Donald Finch. Carnegie-Mellon University. MIT. Worked at the Sun, Lucent, Rand Corp." Purcell read dryly. We had gone back to DC (unfortunately-I had wanted to stay with Braz, but Purcell wouldn't let me. Jackass.). Purcell, Zimsky, Josh, Serge, a few random agents and I were standing around a boy that looked about ten years younger than me. He was apparently a computer hacker. He seemed familiar, but I just couldn't place him. At the moment, I was just jealous of his last name, due to an obsession I have with To Kill a Mockingbird. I mean, let's face it. Atticus Finch was a _god._

"My handle's 'Rat'. Call me Rat." He corrected.

"Sixty three computer fraud indictments."

"Sixty four," Rat corrected again, annoying Purcell. The kid was now immediately placed on my good side just for annoying the Pedobear, which was what I had secretly nicknamed Purcell.

"Two convictions. This is strike three, Mr. Finch." Rat frowned at Purcell's comment and at the fact that he still wasn't calling him Rat.

"Wait a second. You guys aren't here to whack me, are you? Cause I was really hoping to have sex before that happened." I bit back a laugh while Zimsky rolled his eyes.

"I've been told by the FBI-who's database you crippled a few years back-that you are the best in the business. So you're about to be given a choice." Purcell stated. Now I remembered him! Maya hated the guy.

"What if I say no?" Rat challenged. Zimsky stepped in, incredibly bored with this 'sad display of human life', as he would say. "Excuse me, but, is this really the best we could do? I mean…"

"How many languages do you speak?" Rat asked in a defying way.

"Five, actually." Zimsky stated, lighting a cigarette. I leaned into him. "Really? I speak five, too. English, Russian, Gaelic, Sarcasm, and Cynicism." He laughed quietly at my statement.

"Well, I speak one. One, Zero, One, Zero, Zero. With that I could steal your money, your secrets, your sexual fantasies, your whole life. Any country, any place, and time I want. We multitask like you breathe. I couldn't think as slow as you if I tried." We looked to Zimsky and saw him fuming at Rat's response.

"Do you have any idea-" I interrupted Zimsky before he could yell at Rat. "Someone needs a hug." I said and threw my arms around him, causing him to calm down slightly.

"Sexual fantasies?" Josh repeated questioningly I was wondering the same thing. How could Rat steal that over the computer?

"Yeah," Rat scanned everyone in the room before his eyes landed on me. "About her." Zimsky and I jumped apart in shock.

"What? No!"

"Really, Rat, why me? Cause I'm the only female in the room?"

"No, I'm just really observant." I raised my eyes and looked from Rat to Zimsky and back. If Zimsky actually did think of me like that, I wouldn't mind jumping him; he was attractive and rich. But I knew he didn't. Did he? Zimsky shook his head and muttered under his breath. Nope, he didn't.

"Let's give the kid a break." Josh said. He turned as Rat pulled something out of his pocket. Josh sighed as others ran to retrieve it. "Okay, it's a phone. Just a phone!" he assured them. He kneeled down next to the seat as Rat pulled out a piece of gum. "Rat, we got a big problem. A lot of people are going to die. We need your help."

"What kind of help?"

"Information control." Pedobear responded. "We need you to control the flow of information on the Internet."

"You're dreaming." Rat stated matter-of-factly. "Nobody controls the 'Net."

"Could you, with unlimited resources?"

"You want me to hack the planet?" Rat asked in amazement. Rat laughed as he dialed a number on Josh's phone. "He wants me to hack the planet." The number dialed. He blew a few notes into the receiver, a few more dial tones, and then he tossed the phone back to Josh. "You've got free long distance on that phone...forever." Rat turned to face Purcell the rest of us. "Okay, if I decide to do this, I'm going to need an unlimited supply of Xena tapes, and Hot Pockets."

"Hot Pockets?" Purcell repeated.

"They help me concentrate." I laughed.

"Sounds fair."

Chapter 4: The Crew

_Operations Base, Undesignated Location_

I walked into the meeting room, not looking forward to the future events. Not wanting to talk to anyone, I took out my phone and leaned against the nearest wall. My favorite, Doctor Who fanfiction. I had re-read this fic a thousand times. It one of those Academy Era fics with Theta Sigma and Koschei.

"…I want to know if DESTINI caused this problem." I overheard Purcell tell Zimsky, and I walked over to them.

"It's highly unlikely, but it may be the solution. Now I have not finished checking-"

"Let's go, Zimsky." I grabbed his arm and pulled him away and towards Braz, Josh and Serge. "It's no use arguing with Pedobear. The man's an idiot. You okay, Josh?" I asked.

"Yeah, just can't tie a Windsor, is all."

"Right over left," I reminded him.

"That's what I told him." Braz stated. The moral support obviously wasn't helping Josh one bit.

"Gentleman." Purcell addressed us. We turned away from helping Josh who was still having an immense problem. We parted to allow room for the newcomers.

"And lady," I reminded Purcell. He ignored me and glared at him. "Pedobear," I muttered. The new female smiled and stifled a giggle. I smiled back; we would be good friends.

"Commander Iverson, Major Childs, this is your crew: Doctor Brazzleton knows the ship;"

"Hello." Braz greeted each of them in turn.

"Doctor Zimsky knows the planet,"

"Doctor." Iverson greeted formally.

"Doctor Leveque knows the weapon's system," Purcell turned to Josh.

"Doctor Keyes." Josh was still messing with his tie. Purcell cleared his throat to get the man's attention. "Doctor Keyes built the navigation system, so..."

Rebecca leaned in and shook his hand, smiling pleasantly. "Hi. Rebecca Childs." he nodded his head. He did the same to the Commander. "Bob Iverson."

"And Doctor Kincaid knows the ship, _and _the planet, not to mention being able to keep everyone," Purcell eyed Zimsky. "Under control."

"And I can make a damn good burrito, if you ask me," I greeted Bob and Rebecca. Rebecca laughed my comment before Pedobear glared at me and continued.

"These are your fellow...fellow...what?"

"Terranauts?" Rebecca asked.

"Hello," came Stickley's voice from behind us. "All this brain power over here is beginning to smell like burning batteries. Y'all better come and join in."

"Why did he look at me when he said that you could keep us all under control?" Zimsky asked as we took our seats. I gave him a knowing look and laughed. "Okay, what is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Zimsky. Nothing" I rolled my eyes and smiled. Rebecca and Josh walked over to the table and took their seats. There was an obvious non-scientific chemistry between them both. Hm, seems I'm going to be playing matchmaker.

"Let me introduce our project leader, Doctor Joshua Keyes."

"Thank you. Thank you." Josh said as he sat. The audience applauded along with Serge, Iverson, Rebecca, and I. "Good evening. Good evening. Wow, this looks like a meeting for Nobel Prize Winners Anonymous. I know you're all the finest in your fields and I've come a long way to be here. So I'll outline our program over the next three months…"

_Military Base_

"This is a program Pandora and I designed to simulate the effect of nuclear detonations on the core. If our calculations are correct, a tiny nudge in any direction will force the core back into its normal flow." Zimsky stated and I nodded along to everything he said.

"What's a 'tiny nudge' in planetary terms?" Josh asked, taking a seat beside Rebecca, who liked to be known as Beck. I was glad to see that they were bonding so quickly.

"Well, a thousand megaton give or take." came Serge, waving his hand.

"Tops," I stated. "Because any more than that would create core instability."

"We made a few monster warheads in the two hundred megaton range." Serge interjected again. He turned to his computer as the simulator did its work. "Braz, do you think the ship could handle five of these babies?"

"Yeah," Braz nodded his head confidently. "I can enlarge the ejection pod..."

"Forgive me," Iverson interrupted, stepping into the conversation. "But, you know, I know I'm not the expert here, but what if the core is thicker or thinner? I mean, what if it's not what you think it is? Isn't that going to affect the way the explosions are...?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Zimsky stated in mock concern. "And what if the core is made of cheese?" He and I laughed. Me, at the cheese comment. Him, I have no idea. "This is all best guess, Commander. That's all science is, is best guess."

Iverson nodded his head thoughtfully. "So my best guess is you don't know."

"Ooh, you got some ice for that burn?" I said and Beck and I laughed. Zimsky glared at me, and I began to absentmindedly play around with some scientific calculations.

"Hey, Pandora?" Josh asked and sat down next to me as everyone began to walk off in different directions.

"Hm?" I paused in my computer toying.

"What if the core _is _made of cheese?" he asked jokingly.

"Then," I closed my laptop. "We break for lunch."

I picked up the ship's blue print and looked at some of Braz's notes. When completed, the ship would be powered by a small experimental nuclear reactor. It will be divided into six compartments like cars on a train: the locomotive unit, navigation compartment, living quarters, engineering, bomb compartment, and finally the weapons control module.

"Up to a forty five degree angle, every compartment will be held level by these gyro control things." Braz stated, pointing out the features on a computer simulated future Virgil. "But if we do breach a section, bulkhead doors engage automatically, seal off the section in red, and eject."

"Is ejection really the best option?" Serge asked nervously. He didn't sound like he liked the idea.

"Only option." Braz stated. "Each damaged compartment degrades the entire ship."

The mission was getting closer. I looked to Zimsky with nervousness in my eyes and he pulled me in a hug, reassuring me that everything would be okay. Beck, unnoticed by Zimsky, looked curiously to us, probably amazed that Zimsky had a good side.

"It's called virus-bot," Rat stated as the computer went through its exercises, and I watched in utter fascination. "It's a computer virus that will seek out files anywhere on the Web that contain keywords that we designate, and wipes them out. This is my Kung-Fu, and it is strong." I laughed. Seeing Josh, I prepared to get up, before Rat's voice caused me to stay.

"Pandora? Why are you so familiar?"

"Ex FBI. You remember Maya?" he nodded. "I was the chick who put a whoopee cushion on her chair."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you now. So tell me. Is there something going on between you and the German asshole?" I rolled my eyes at what he called Zimsky.

"What do you think?" I winked at Rat and walked off, leaving him wide eyed.

We were belted and buckled into our appropriate seats in the simulator. This was merely a test compared to what we would be facing in the weeks to come, but so far, it wasn't going well. Iverson, Braz, and Zimsky were shouting back and forth as Serge and Beck called out random necessary information. Josh sat in his seat, not enjoying a moment of the ride. I was just desperately trying to keep everyone calm, which trust me, was _not _easy.

"Talk to me, gentleman." Iverson commanded.

"We are losing structural integrity." warned Serge.

"No, it's not feedback." Braz corrected Zimsky. "It's an impeller malfunction, I believe."

"No, it's not, no. If it were an impeller malfunction-"

"Guys, stop shouting!" I yelled.

"For God's sake Braz, make the call!" Josh finally was able to say. Giving up, I just began to sing random Evanescence songs.

"No, I'll make the call, I should make the call." Zimsky yelled.

"Sixty five knots." Beck yelled. "Depth eight five thousand feet."

"Sick of it all, sick of it all, we will not follow!" I sang, laughing at how shitty this test run was going.

"Look, guys..." Iverson cursed. Braz and Zimsky were still screaming at each other. Through everything we could all hear Serge's laughter.

"We're going to- It's a disaster!" MISSION FAILURE appeared on all the screens.

"What part of 'talk to me' don't you guys understand?" Iverson asked in a very pissed off way. Stickley, from her position in the tower overhead, shook her head.

"For the twenty second time in a row, everyone on Earth is dead. Let's take a little quiet time, and you all are going to try this again." I sighed. It was going to be a while till we could start this mission.

"Twenty million dollars has been spent developing this system!" Braz snapped at Zimsky as we walked along a landing strip near the desert military base. Serge and Josh were deep in conversation about food. Iverson and Beck inserted their own opinions about dining during the mission. I just walked next to Zimsky in silence, rolling my eyes at their antics. Really, as long as I got a least _one _churro, I'd be A-Okay.

They continued their bickering and complaining until Josh stopped walking. "Whoa!" he stated, eyeing the horizon line to the west. Serge and I stopped beside him as the others congregated nearby. A high powered electrical storm was forming just a few dozen miles away. "That's high level static discharge." I informed everyone else as we eyed the imminent storm with worry.

"I think we should check this out." Beck stated, turning to us. "This doesn't look so good." I nodded my head in agreement. I continued to watch it until the others were well ahead of me, then started out at a brisk pace back toward the hanger.

The station was humming with whispering voices. Fear was in everyone's eyes. We piled into Rat's cubicle like area in the hanger. Serge, Josh, Beck, Iverson, Zimsky, Braz, and I gathered around the small collection of computers where Purcell was already standing with Stickley.

"It's a lightening super storm." Josh explained as we all found a place to view the show.

"Popping up all over the world." Purcell informed us.

"Got 'em. Tracking." Rat stated, pressing one button. The computers went into frenzy until at last a map lined with red came up over Rome, Italy. "Uh-oh. Rome does _not_ look good."

We sat and watched in fear as the rest of the world started to turn out the same way. China, Russia, Japan, Canada were all having electric super storms. I became slightly terrified. Before I could begin shaking at the prospect of someone I knew dying, Zimsky kissed the side of my head and gently stroked my hair. I felt slightly better at the comfort my best friend was providing.

"This planet is decaying faster than we thought." Josh whispered, and he began to search through some of Rat's papers.

"It's just the start." came Zimsky, shaking his head, frowning curiously at the screens before us. We were silent, too shocked to say anything. "Soon they'll be EM spikes and microwaves will break through the weak spots and-"

"All right." Purcell spoke up. "Let's get this ship in the ground. Now."

_Hotel-Mariana's Trench, South Pacific_

"Do I really have to share a hotel room with you?" I asked Zimsky, not really meaning the annoyance in my voice.

"Well, it seems that I'm the only one that can successfully calm you down. So, it would seem so." I rolled my eyes.

"Hm, calm me down? That's my job." I smiled, shrugging off my jacket and sat on the couch, turning on Lifetime. Zimsky sat beside me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"I'm scared. What if the mission goes wrong? What if-" He interrupted me by kissing me chastely. "Don't ask what if. I won't let anything happen to you, Pandora. Over my dead body." Zimsky stood and walked into a different room, leaving me stunned.

Mark the time. You got it? That was the second I fell in love with Dr. Conrad Zimsky.

Chapter 5: The Mission Begins

_Mariana's Trench, South Pacific_

The helicopter was soon clear of all oceans, landing safely upon a tiny launch pad in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Iverson leapt off first, followed closely by Beck. Josh then stepped off, Serge behind him, Braz, Zimsky, then finally me. All of us looked scornfully up at the sky.

"Ah, summer in the Pacific." Zimsky stated sarcastically and I smiled. We walked somberly toward the ship, as a prisoner sometimes does on death row. Stoic faced but trembling in unspoken fear.

"Yeah, the world is inside out." Josh stated as all our eyes' widened when we saw the ship. It definitely was art.

"I was saving this for later," Serge stated, turning to the small circle we had unintentionally formed amongst ourselves. "But this is the time for..." he trailed off and displayed a bottle of wine. "Josh, do you mind?" he asked, handing it over.

"No not at all. Yeah." he took the bottle, twisted the cork, and held it up. "We should have a name for this baby."

"Oh, she's called Virgil, actually." Braz stated as he held out his paper cup and adjusted his bag on his shoulder.

"Virgil-the poet that lead our man into the depths of hell?" I asked, scrounging up bits and pieces of left over knowledge from Mr. Fork's class.

"That's it." Braz nodded.

"That's appropriate I guess." Josh laughed, continuing the pouring of drinks. "Well, here's to Virgil." he raised his cup.

"For the planet." Serge raised his own cup. We all raised ours in turn.

"To Virgil." Zimsky and I said in synch and toasted with each other. This morning, I had woken up with a new view on the world. I was going to make sure this mission gets completed. I wouldn't let Zimsky or myself die. Not now, after I had realized that I was in love with the man.

"No flashbulbs, no press, no cheering. It's...weird." Iverson shook his head. "Let's go."

We were inside Virgil now, seated and belted. If anyone wanted to turn back, it was too late. There was absolutely no turning back now. I turned on my computer and began to configure it for the mission. From next to me, I saw Zimsky narrating into a tiny recorder. I rolled my eyes. How could I keep everyone calm when he would me annoying the hell out of me?

"Deep Earth Control, this is Virgil. Signal check."

"This is Deep Earth Control." Came Stickley over the com. "I have thumbs-up across the board. You are clear to initiate power up."

Iverson reached up, flicked an assorted number of switches, and waited. The humming told us that the drills on Virgil's sides were powered up and spinning.

"At one thousand RPM, we will countdown to launch. On your mark." Stickley announced. "Pad leader, stand by for launch." A few seconds passed. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Launch." The bolts opened, and Virgil was released into the sea. I held onto the 'Oh Shit' handles and we all braced ourselves for the roller-coaster ride ahead.

Virgil hit the sea. None of us moved as we felt the rapid descent through the water. Everyone went through their jobs, delivering the message to DEC that we were doing okay.

"Hey, nobody's blaming Zimsky for anything." I stated. He glared at me but everyone else laughed.

"Let's increase impeller speed." Braz suggested. "I think we'll be needing additional control." Iverson did as he commanded.

"Um, guys? I'm getting a seismic reading." I said, trying to stay calm.

"What is it?" Beck asked as Zimsky stared at my computer.

"T-phase." I answered. "Underwater Earthquake."

"Still think the water launch was a good idea?" Braz inquired mockingly toward Zimsky.

"Yes." He responded. "Yes I chose this location because the crust is thin here. The downside is...there's lots of seismic activity."

"That's right, vato, defend your purse like a man." I said under my breath. Great, now we were going to die, and it was all Zimsky's fault. I glared at him when he wasn't looking.

I looked up on the screens. The underwater cliffs that we had been gliding through before were now coming to pieces above our heads. We were in trouble. "You see that rock?" I warned, my eyes never leaving my computer screen. "That is not good." Two rocks hit the surface of Virgil's exterior, causing us to shift uncomfortably in our seats.

"We are losing steering here. There's some kind of crosscurrent. Okay guys, fasten your seatbelts." Iverson warned as he changed direction.

"We hit the wall we're rabbits on the highway." Serge warned. "What a beautiful comparison." I muttered under my breath and became nervous.

"Go to full throttle!" Braz commanded. "Standby to engage front and lateral lasers. Just give it a couple more seconds." Braz encouraged. "The lasers will fire." The lasers started to spin, but no effect.

"No, there's not enough time for power up." Iverson commented.

"The lasers will deploy." Braz continued. I never looked more frightened in my life. The lasers started to spin faster and faster, but still nothing.

"Do it!" Zimsky and I shouted.

"And..." Braz went on.

"Do it!" Josh yelled. "Now!" The lasers deployed. The rock before us disintegrated and carved a perfect path just as we dove into the crust of the Earth.

"All right." I visibly calmed down afterward. "We made it."

"Hot damn." Beck laughed.

"All right," Zimsky stated. "We'll be through the crust in fifteen minutes and into the mantle. Twenty four hours to the core, and then assuming we survive-"

"Assuming?" Josh turned his head. "Oy, vey." I sighed. Zimsky had to stop assuming we would die. "Yes, assuming. Another fifteen hours to the inner-outer core border."

"Virgil, can we get a status check?" Stick said over the com.

"We're about to make the transition into the mantle." Beck confirmed. With the most painful and suspenseful part of the mission now finished, all our eyes were on the visuals screens. I took out my phone, but surprisingly enough, there was no service. I glared at the useless iPhone.

Once again, Zimsky was speaking into his recorder. That is, until Braz got so annoyed that he decided to speak up.

"Are you going to be doing that Carl Sagan narration all the way to the core?" he asked. I laughed, completely agreeing with him.

"I beg your pardon?" Zimsky asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"I said..."

"I-I have an obligation to my students, to my readers..."

"Obligation to make a book deal, perhaps." Braz commented.

"Two book deals, if you'd like to know the truth." I shook my head and began toying with my computer. Their petty argument helped me get my mind off all the worry that came with this trip.

"I read that last book. It wasn't very good."

"Oh really? Really?" Zimsky asked. "And when did you learn how to read?" I laughed.

"That was cold, man." I told Zimsky, without looking at him. "Don't ever go out for cheerleader." At my comment, everyone started laughing. Calm atmosphere, check. I was doing okay.

Chapter 6: A Turn for the Worst

12 Hours in; 700 Miles Down

So far, the ride had been smooth. There had been no trouble whatsoever, and the tension between Zimsky and Braz had been taken care of by Josh and I, keeping the duo separated whenever possible (guess who I was taking care of?).

"People." Iverson stated with some strain, causing me to start worrying a bit. "Doctors Zimsky and Kincaid?" he pointed at the screen. I stepped forward, frowning. Zimsky joined him at his side a few seconds later looking disturbed. "You guys are our resident geophysicists. What do you make of this?"

"The mantle is a chemical mix up of...a variety of elements..." he rambled. I just stood quietly in confusion. Braz leaned over Zimsky's shoulder.

"Say it with me: I don't know." he mocked. Zimsky rolled his eyes and frowned bitterly.

"Well commander." Serge came in with a small chuckle. "Wise men say, 'When in doubt you should go around.'"

"No it's too big." Beck objected. "We turn too slow." There was a pause. "Anything that we can't go through displays as black. So what's...what's static?"

"It's nothing." I unwittingly answered, leaning against Zimsky, lost in frustration at my lack of knowledge.

Braz frowned and turned his gaze to me. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing." I answered again. Suddenly the nothing wasn't nothing. It was nothing, but that was something for us. A big problem. Zimsky's eyes were now gazing towards me as well, questioning. Suddenly Josh's head flew up, eyes wide and full of panic. "It's empty space."

Braz's eyes widened and he moved quickly to his seat. Zimsky's eyes did a few double-takes between Josh and the screen before finally moving to his own seat. I rushed to my seat as well and began looking through my computer.

"I never taught the computer how to read empty space." Josh stated.

"And I never taught Virgil how to fly." Braz added.

I fastened my own belts quickly. "If anything happens, I'm gonna need one of those cigarettes." Zimsky's eyes widened at me for a brief second. The static exploded on the screen and Virgil broke through the barrier sooner than any of us had anticipated. We were all thrown forward in our seats. Virgil was going way too fast for my liking.

"Oh, sweet Rassilon." I whispered. I saw solid floor beneath us, lined with sharp and solid crystals. Suddenly all of us were jolted backwards, then forward once more as the ship flew across the floor and the field of crystals miles wide and yards high.

Then, just as quickly as hell began, it stopped. We were all thrown forward at full force, and then we collapsed into our seats. Virgil was no longer moving, but I didn't mind at the moment

"Anybody hurt?" Iverson asked.

Zimsky and I exchanged glances momentarily. We were both okay. "No." Zimsky answered, sounding relieved that I had not been harmed. I smiled at his concern.

"Where in God's name are we?" Beck asked in confusion.

"Whatever has us jammed up is inside our lasers." Iverson noted, staring into the screens. "Shut 'em down. We're not going anywhere."

Beck sighed. "Powering down." she hit the power switches. The lasers died, and Virgil was left in the dark. "Josh, is there any other image you can pull up?" He glanced into his computer.

"Nope. Whatever it is, it's also inside our MRI cameras."

"We have to go outside." Braz declared.

"I hate to admit it, but I think he's right." Josh stated from his seat.

Zimsky jumped from his seat like a kid on Christmas. "I'm coming with. I want to collect samples-" I looked up at him with concern in my eyes. I didn't like the idea of Zimsky going out into some unknowable place where anything could happen.

"Wait, the first problem is the only way we came out of the ship is the way we came in. Which is through the impeller outlet," Beck stated.

"Which is still at five thousand degrees." Serge went on.

"Exactly, I mean-"

"I'll just flush it with liquid nitrogen from the cooling system." Braz responded as if it were the easiest problem in the world.

"Wait." Josh argued. "The cooling system that's keeping us from roasting to death in this ship?" He smiled mockingly. I groaned; I was wearing long jeans. "I told you to wear shorts," Zimsky whispered to me and I glared at him. Hate to love ya, babe.

"Well, just a small part of it."

"Alternatives? Anybody?"

Zimsky told me to stay put in the ship and he, Braz, Iverson, Josh, and Serge walked out. I sighed angrily and sat in Iverson's chair, next to Beck. I glared at the screen, looked at Zimsky's pulse reader, and kicked the metal in front of me.

"You okay?" Beck looked at me, concerned.

"What do you think?" I snapped, not meaning to direct the anger at Beck. She connected the dots when she saw me look one too many times at Zimsky's pulse reader.

"Jesus, you love Zimsky, don't you? Oh, you are so whipped." Beck smiled at me.

"Well, what about you and Joshie boy? I'm not alone in this, sister." I said, but didn't correct her.

"That's what I thought." she smiled, probably glad that she was right. "It does make sense, though. You're, like, his only friend." I laughed; this was most likely true.

"Beck, try the lights would you?" came Josh from outside.

"Lighting up." we sat in silence for a few more minutes, before I heard a door open and slam shut, followed by Zimsky cursing. I looked from Beck to him and back. She laughed. "Go help your man, Pandora." I rushed off and found Zimsky in the medical pod, trying to wrap his wrist in surgical tape.

"Here, let me help." I finished the wrapping for him. "What happened?" I asked with concern.

"Virgil breached the shell; I was struck by crystal." I sighed in relief and threw my arms around him. "Pandora?"

"Hm?"

"Why did Beck call me 'your man'?" he asked me with amusement. I groaned in embarrassment and tried desperately to hide my blush. I had forgotten that everyone was wearing coms. Zimsky probably heard the whole thing. Well, shit.

"Oh, nothing. She was just kidding around." I looked away. Suddenly, chaos erupted. Serge and Braz rushed in, carrying an unconscious Josh. We ran back into the navigation compartment and saw Beck in Iverson's seat, steering the ship.

Iverson was nowhere to be found.

Mission Day Two

Beck sat in the commander's seat and was doing rather well, compared to her driving in the simulator. Zimsky was in his seat, doing something concerning no one else, except me, who was fighting boredom and was watching him with interest. It turned out that Zimsky hadn't been paying attention to Beck's conversation with me, only the end. Thank you, distracting crystals that cause bodily harm. Braz, Serge, and Josh were in the weapons control compartment.

"Zimsky, Pandora, could you please come up here for a second?" Beck asked with some concern in her voice. We left our seats and walked toward the front of the navigation compartment.

"We're not supposed to go through anything black, right?"

"Yes, so please don't." I rolled my eyes at him. "Nope."

"So, what is this?"

A great field of black mass came over the screen. Zimsky stared at the monitor. I couldn't even begin to comprehend what I was seeing.

"Oh my God," he exclaimed in realization and grabbed my shoulder in excitement. "They're diamonds!"

"Great." Beck sighed in frustration. "You might want to sit down and buckle up. We're on a collision course here."

We didn't waste a second getting to our seats while Beck turned on the coms. Virgil soared straight into the diamond field, with the only way out just ahead. Unfortunately, it wasn't a direct path, and Virgil was not made for direct turns.

"Guys," Beck said into the com sharply. "We're dodging diamonds here the size of Cape Cod, so bear with me. Not exactly nimble here."

"Diamonds?" Josh asked with interest over the coms. "I want some."

"Okay!" Beck yelled happily over the coms after a few minutes. "It looks like we're in the clear!"

I started to relax when Beck shouted out in anger. A loud explosion like sound was heard from the weapons control module, and I looked up, freaking out.

"Breach!" Beck screamed through the coms. "Guys! Weapons control, get out! Get out now!" we heard sounds of struggle, and my stomach dropped when I heard that Serge had gotten trapped.

"Beck! Reset the overrides!" Josh yelled through the coms. She moved to reset them, when Zimsky shouted.

"No, Beck, don't! One damaged compartment threatens the whole ship." She moved her hand back. I listened over the coms as Josh continued to yell, but Beck did nothing. Virgil shook as weapons control ejected, taking Serge with it. My eyes cast down. We couldn't have lost two people already. Who was next? Zimsky? Beck? Me? Josh stormed into our compartment with Braz right behind him.

"Did you reset the overrides?" Josh asked and Beck's eyes cast down.

"I never pushed them."

"You let him die."

"Actually, you really want to know? I killed him twice. First when I hit the diamond and then when I didn't hit the override. You want me to feel any worse about that than I already do? It's not possible-"

"Why are you being so smug about that?" Josh yelled. I didn't move to help him calm down.

"Could you have made the decision?"

"Yes, I could've. If you would have hit that switch I could've got him outta there! I was yelling for you!" he held up Serge's notebook that was opened to a picture of his family. "Take it and look at it! I was two inches from him! I was two inches and I told you to put up the door and you didn't! Why didn't you do it?"

"Because, I had to make that decision. Fate or God-"Josh interrupted her.

"No, you-damn it, you leave God out of this!"

"Serge died so we could complete our job!" Beck shot back, reminding him of the task at hand.

"Oh, that's right, the job of saving the world!"

"Not, the whole world, Josh! Just three of them!" Josh disappeared from the navigation compartment. Nobody went after him.

Chapter 7: Project Destiny

_35 Hours in; 1900 Miles Down_

"Virgil you are approaching core interface." stated Talma Stickley from Deep Earth Control. "Are you good to go?"

"Josh?" Braz called over the coms toward the back of the ship. "Josh can you hear me?" he waited, exchanging glances with Zimsky who sat silently in his seat. I was absentmindedly playing with my computer again. "Josh, can you hear me?"

Josh had disappeared for some time. During then none of us had contacted him, and in turn he had not said anything to us. Serge's death had hit him hard, and I wasn't doing any better. I just couldn't handle death. It was difficult.

"As ready as we'll ever be, Stick." Beck replied. At that time the soft tapping of shoes could be heard from behind the navigation compartment, and Josh entered with an apologetic grin on his face.

"Doctor Keyes." Beck addressed. "Here." came Josh, who was now in his seat.

Beck smiled. "Deep Earth, we are green and good to go." I smiled, amazed and relieved to have made this far. Suddenly, we all felt a shift.

"We just got a huge speed jump here." Beck noted. "We're at ninety five knots. One ten. One thirty. One forty." she shifted through some of the data readings on her screen. "Our speed's jumped because the density of the core is different than our estimates. It's lighter than we thought."

"So much for best guesses." Braz stated mockingly. Zimsky frowned, upset to be wrong.

"I'm fine with this." Beck stated, not realizing the dire situation we were now in. "At this rate we'll, what-reach the inner core in a little over five hours. I think we finally bought some luck."

"Braz." Zimsky spoke up, doing some calculations on his computer. "Would you please punch the new core density into the equations for the nuclear detonation?"

Braz did just that. A few entries on the keyboard and the simulation started. A blob of green appeared on the easternmost point of the core diagram and then spread in a vast array of green lined patterns. The lines, representing the wave patterns of the explosion, reached the edge of the inner core and mantle, and bounced back and forth, weaving a never ending motion through the core properties.

"Please tell me this is enough." I prayed from my seat. We waited in anxiety, until a small alarm sounded from the computer speakers. FAILURE SCENARIO appeared over the diagram.

"You're telling me the one thousand megatons of nuclear warheads we hauled down here isn't going to cut it?" Beck snapped.

"No." Zimsky replied very matter-of-factly. "This core material is too thin. The energy waves from the explosion won't spread far enough. They'll just bleed away into nothing." I groaned. We had come all this way for nothing.

"That's it." Zimsky announced. "We go home." We all turned questioningly in his direction. "We go home." he repeated.

"What?" I said.

"Our weapons specialist is dead. Our Commander is dead. Our weapons control systems are gone. We don't know whether we can arm the nuclear devices-"

"We can still arm them if we-" Josh started to argue, but Zimsky cut him off.

"And our plan to fix the core no longer works. So, we have failed."

"We have not failed." Josh argued again.

"We have failed," Zimsky repeated. "And we go home, and we go to the alternative." I realized what he meant, and my eyes widened in horror. No…

"What alternative?" Braz asked with a frown. "What are you talking about?"

Zimsky was no longer listening. "General, this is Doctor Conrad Zimsky. Destiny is a go. Repeat. Destiny is a go."

I stood. "No, Zimsky, you can't!"

"Calm down, Pandora. It will work." I glared. No it won't… I thought. He couldn't do this.

"Wait, what the hell is Destiny?" Beck questioned. I just sat back down and shook my head.

"It's a device." Zimsky answered. "Deep Earth Seismic Trigger Initiative. DEST-INI. Destiny. We had reason to believe that our enemies were building a weapon that could generate targeted seismic events. They would be able to create massive earthquakes under our territory. No way of telling who did it."

"So?" Josh asked.

"So, we built one too. MAD! Mutually Assured Destruction. A perfect acronym if ever there was one."

"Beautiful." Josh stated.

"They built it first. Pandora and I built it better."

"Hey! Leave me out of this!" I yelled, but he ignored me.

"Zimsky, what makes you think Destiny would even touch the core?" Braz asked in severe doubt.

"Cause it already did." Josh said, pissed. "This isn't a fluke. We killed the planet."

"You keep saying the core is too big to be affected by anything short of nukes, so-"

"The core is an engine." said Josh, standing. "Throw a small wrench into a big engine, you can still stall it." I kicked the metal in front of me repeatedly. Why did Zimsky have to be so stupid?

"Deep Earth this is Virgil. We require clarification on the status of Project Destiny. Why weren't we notified of this?"

"Because you didn't need to know, Commander." Purcell answered with some air of anger in his voice.

Josh rolled his eyes as Braz shook his head and laughed sarcastically. I just wished that I'd never helped build Destiny. "Now you may not like this. I may not like it either. But it's my job, and I do it for my country. And if we don't develop these devices someone worse will, and they will use them against us. But you have my word, No one in this administration-no one, had any idea that this could happen."

"So the device that killed the planet is your backup plan." Asked Braz.

"Give me an F, give me an O, give me an O, give me an L. What does that spell?" I said, glaring at Zimsky.

"Fool?" Beck guessed.

"No, Zimsky." He rolled his eyes, but I meant it. He couldn't fire Destiny.

"An electric shock can stop a heart. It can certainly restart one. Destiny will work. It has to."

"No, it won't work!" I stood up once more and yelled. Zimsky looked at me in amazement. "If you fire that thing again with the core already stalled, it will terminally destabilize it."

"Yes, granted-there is a marginal risk involved." Zimsky agreed. "But given the circumstances, I hardly see that there's an alternative."

"Every, no, Zimsky listen to me. Every volcano on the planet will blow. There'll be earthquakes big enough to rip us to pieces!"

"Doctor Kincaid!" yelled Purcell from DEC. Oh, shut up, Pedobear

"What?" I snapped.

"I'm afraid it's all we've got. Now I have orders from the President. Come home, Virgil. We go to Plan B." There was silence. Finally, I spoke up again. I can't back down now.

"What about a Plan C?" The others turned and looked at me.

"Plan C?" Josh raised his eyebrows.

"Plan C." I repeated. "We continue on...we restart the core...somehow...We don't do it...they fire Destiny."

"I can't wait for you to get out of there." Purcell argued.

"Then don't." I answered simply. "If we fail...fire Destiny."

"Oh, come on! That's ridiculous!" Zimsky yelled angrily from his seat.

"What choice do we have, Zimsky?" Josh argued in my defense.

"Are you kidding me? If they set that thing off the shockwaves will wipe us out! We'll be lucky to get back if we turn back right now!"

"Virgil, I'm telling you right now, we will fire Destiny," Purcell went on. "And we need to do so as quickly as possible, and if you're still there, you will be destroyed. Rebecca? Please don't make me have to do this."

"Plan C." Braz nodded. Josh nodded with him, saying nothing.

"You already know my answer, Beck." I nodded.

"It's your call then, Commander." Josh went on with a sad smile. Beck nodded and turned in her seat.

"Majority decision. We're going in." she stated firmly. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Oh, come on! You're a bunch of suicidal morons!" Zimsky yelled, flying from his seat and into the isle. We turned to Zimsky, who was growing slightly madder by the moment. "What are you, crazy? Plan C? Restart the core 'somehow'? Oh, that's a great idea! That's a brilliant idea! I can't believe I'm stuck in this floating septic tank with you lunatics! You may have nothing to lose!" he pointed at Braz. "You may have nothing to lose." He pointed to Josh. "You may have nothing to lose." he pointed at Beck. "And you seem to think you have nothing to lose," he pointed at me, and I looked at him with shock at his statement. I just sat down and let everyone else deal with him.

"But I have my life to lose, thank you very much, while you're up! Now turn it around! He told us to go back, and we're going back! Why? You want to be a hero? You want to be a martyr? What do you want to be? You're out of your mind! Thank you! Turn it around!"

There were a whole bunch of random obscenities and screams exchanged between Josh, Braz and Zimsky. Eventually the mad scientist turned on Braz.

"You, shut up!" He spat. What happened after that, no one had expected, and yet at the same time we'd all been waiting for it. Braz punched Zimsky and he fell backward, unconscious. I raised my eyes in silent praise, which shocked Beck. I was too pissed at Zimsky to care at the moment.

"It's not a stupid ship." Braz stated. "I had to." Josh shrugged and half grinned, setting Zimsky lazily back into his seat.

"It had to happen sometime."

Chapter 8: Stones in a Pond

A few hours had passed. Beck was navigating, Josh and Braz were trying to come up with a successful plan, Zimsky was knocked out cold, and I was just playing around with a game on my phone that didn't need Wi-Fi.

"Pandora?" Zimsky, who had woken up, put a hand on my shoulder.

"You do realize that rape starts with a hand on your shoulder?" I stated angrily. He sighed.

"Pandora-"

"You know what? You are _NOT_ Google! Maybe you should just stop trying to act like you know everything! I do have something to lose!" I bit back a sob. "Y-you." I started crying and Zimsky pulled me to him and let me cry on his shoulder.

"Are you really this concerned about losing me?" I nodded. After a few minutes my crying let up. I blushed and turned away, embarrassed that I had just cried in front of him.

"You know, you give a whole new meaning to the term 'Mad Scientist'." Zimsky laughed and rolled his eyes.

"Come on; let's go help Josh and Braz." We walked into the Locomotive Unit; they were trying to devise a plan that would save us all. Zimsky circled around them, and I leaned against a Unobtainium wall. Zimsky started laughing.

"Wait, hold on." Braz paused. "What are you laughing at?" he snapped.

"No, I mean, it took me, Pandora, and four hundred of the world's smartest people to come up with the first plan." he argued.

"You want to help?" Josh asked.

"No." Zimsky answered firmly. "I want to turn around and go home." I sighed. So did I but, I wasn't going to any time soon.

"It's not going to happen." Braz stated.

"Well then we're going to die." Josh turned and glared at him. "True." Zimsky paced, and he seemed to form his own idea. I was trying to think, but I was forming a blank.

"Oh, for God's sake." He sighed, annoyed. Braz stood up.

"All right. I'm hitting him again." I jumped in front of Zimsky, trying to shield him. Damn, I was just too short. He just wrapped an arm around my waist.

"No, no, no. Braz, no, look, I have a theory. Are you interested?"

"Yes, we're interested!" Josh sighed in exasperation.

"Then let me smoke a cigarette and I'll tell you." Zimsky lit his cigarette. Curious, I tried to steal it from him.

"No." he told me, acting like a concerned parent. I pouted.

"All right, fine, look. We have to use wave interference, okay? Because one explosion won't do it. Think about stones in a pond. You drop a large stone into a pond, you get a big splash, and then that's it, it's over. But, drop a smaller stone," the screen began to demonstrate this, "wait until the ripples weaken, then drop another, and another, and another, and...Fluid dynamics 101. The ripples reinforce themselves in geometric progression."

"Hm. Then we'll have five two hundred megaton explosions..." Braz observed

"Instead of one big bang." Zimsky wrapped it up, nodding his head.

"So," Josh started. "We hot wire the nukes, as one does; we seed them through the core...at locations that have to be accurate by the inch. We detonate them in a sequence that has to be accurate to the millisecond...then we outrun the biggest nuclear shock wave in history."

"Right." Zimsky responded with a stressed tone. I sighed; this was our only option.

"I mean, that should he fairly simple." Josh finished with mock confidence.

46 Hours in, 2600 Miles down

"Okay guys, we're closing on the inner core." Beck announced as we marched through the corridor and into the navigation compartment

"The nukes are ready. Timers are on." Josh stated. Braz went to his seat and started to work on his computer.

"Great, let's start dropping them."

"No." Zimsky argued. "The bombs are not built for these pressures. That's why they were in that pod. If you send them out now, out of that casing they'll be crushed instantly."

"Oh that's wonderful." I stated sarcastically.

"I'm assuming we have a plan D." Beck continued. Josh nodded.

"Plan D is Virgil's compartments. We put a nuke in each section of Virgil, and then eject the individual sections one at a time. They should stay intact long enough for the nukes to go off." My gaze turned to Braz, who was shaking his head.

"What?" I asked.

"Virgil's not designed to eject undamaged compartments." he informed us.

A long 'map' of Virgil's inner setup was displayed across one of the many computer screens. It showed the hydraulic gear pump, piston, and the locks for the separate compartments.

"Okay, these are the ejection mechanisms holding each compartment in place." he stated. The red line running beneath the compartments and into the attachment locks went green as he spoke. "They're all connected by one master hydraulic gear. Kind of like keys on a key ring. What we have to do, we have to unlock the master gear."

"And where's that?" Zimsky asked. Braz sighed, a telltale sign of more bad news.

"In the crawl space we used to get out earlier."

"Well, what the hell is it doing there?" Zimsky questioned.

"I built the ship in three damn months. I didn't think I'd be intentionally sabotaging it. I'm sorry!"

"So one of us has to go in there." Josh stated.

"Correct."

"Into the crawlspace that has core fluid at nine thousand degrees."

"Yes." Braz answered matter-of-factly.

"Can you flush it with liquid nitrogen?" Josh asked.

"We don't have enough at this point."

"Nine thousand degrees?" Zimsky came in. "And our suits are built to withstand...?"

"Half that. Probably."

"Right. Half that." Zimsky nodded his head as if he believed he should have known the answer.

"So what you're saying is that, whoever goes into that crawlspace isn't coming back?"

Chapter 9: Worth Dying For

Braz held three straws for him, Josh and Zimsky. I had wanted to participate, but I hadn't been allowed to (guess who? Zimsky was adamant about me not risking my life).

"Together." Josh stated, and the others nodded. That was the best way to do it, I guess. I was just standing on the sidelines, praying to God that Zimsky would not pull the unlucky straw.

"On three." Josh went on.

"Okay."

"One...two...three." Josh pulled his, and Zimsky moved last for his. Braz was left standing with the last choice. Finally, they brought up their straws. Braz held up his hand with the others. He had the shortest straw. I exhaled in relief that Zimsky was safe, but then I gasped. Not Braz.

"Huh." he stated with some wonder. "Well, I better go on, get myself ready."

"No, Braz, wait." Zimsky protested, following after him quickly. "No, Braz, no wait." he grabbed Braz's hand. "Just a moment. May I see this?"

"No!" Braz yelled, fighting Zimsky off, but it was too late. Zimsky had his straw.

"May I?" he asked mockingly after.

"Yes."

"Thank you." he displayed Braz's straw, folded over.

"Magic." Josh exclaimed in mock fascination.

"I mean, Braz, come on." Zimsky went on. "Three straws of equal length. This is childish. Let's do it again."

"No, we will not do it again." Braz leaned against one of the bunks in the living area. "I thought you'd be happy."

"No. Not at the expense of you making us look like fools." Josh turned to face Braz, frowning.

"He's right. Why do you get dibs on being the hero?"

"Because it's my damn ship." Braz argued.

"Oh that makes perfect sense." Zimsky snapped. I just shook my head. Zimsky couldn't sacrifice himself.

"Look, for twenty damn years I've done nothing but Virgil. Twenty years. Virgil belongs to me, and I will not let her fail. I will not. Now, if you want to know what's worth dying for-this ship. Building it, instead of imagining it. If Virgil needs blood, it will be my blood. Now I better go get ready." I sat in silence for the next few minutes as I tried not to burst into tears. A while later, Zimsky came and sat next to me.

"He's gone." I didn't respond. I just let Zimsky hold me while I cried.

"Timer on."

"Clear." Beck came in. "Ejecting." The guys were working on saving the planet, while I just sat with Beck in the navigation compartment. Zimsky had forced me to stay, not wanting harm to come to me. Seriously, what was with this guy and wanting to protect me?

"Maybe he likes you," Beck stated with a smile. I blushed, not realizing that I had said all that out loud. Her expression morphed into concern. "Guys clear the compartment! What are you doing?"

"Beck?"

"I think the flare knocked the coms out!"

"They're in trouble. I can feel it." Ignoring Beck's orders for me to stay put, I jumped out of my seat and bolted to the compartment they were in. I couldn't get Zimsky out of my mind. My Zimsky. He'd handed me over to him the second he's kissed me. I couldn't let him die.

I ran into the compartment and saw Zimsky trapped under the bomb, Josh trying to help him. I knew Beck was going to eject that compartment, so I knew I had to work fast. Quicker than light, I grabbed Josh and pulled him to safety. I pushed the warhead off of Zimsky's leg and pulled him from the compartment just as the door was closing.

"Ejecting." Beck announced. Well, no shit Sherlock.

"You-you saved my life." we gazed into each other's eyes. Completely forgetting Josh was there, Zimsky wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing me closer to him and kissed me passionately.

"Um, guys, the last bomb?" Josh said, interrupting us. We broke apart and I blushed, but we followed Josh nonetheless. After all, we had a job to do.

We set the last bomb off. To make it larger, Josh had taken the fuel rods. Virgil was now completely out of power. Zimsky and I walked into the navigation compartment and saw Beck and Josh sitting in their seats, talking, and in their own little world. So we sat down in our seats and tried not to act like we were facing imminent death.

"It's freaking hot," I stated. Last time I had checked, it was 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It is." I sighed and toyed around with my computer for the last time. The blast would hit us in about 12 minutes.

"Pandora, you don't have to be awake. Go to sleep, and I'll try to think of something to save us." I looked up at Zimsky for what I thought to be the last time before Josh spoke up.

"Beck." he gasped, sitting up. "Guys. What could you do if I got you enough power to fire the impeller? Maybe not the laser but the impeller?" curious, Zimsky and I walked up to the front of the navigation compartment.

"What? From where?" I asked. Hey, the plan was last minute, but anything to save our asses.

"The heat of the core." he replied. "It's nine thousand degrees. Unobtainium converts heat to energy. So this whole damn ship is like a big, old solar panel!" I smiled. Why didn't we think of this earlier? "Come on, I need your help."

We worked frantically within the depths of Virgil's engineering compartment, basically reforming her entire structure. Our time was running out, but if we worked quickly enough, we just might have a chance.

Beck and I hammered at the last cable, trying desperately to break it free.

"C'mon guys, where is it?" Josh yelled impatiently. Finally the damn thing came lose. Beck threw it to me, and I got it to Josh. "Come on. Come on, hurry up. Is that the last one?"

"Yeah." I answered. Beck, Josh, Zimsky and I ran back into the navigation compartment, waiting for the power to be restored.

"Give it a couple seconds." said Josh. Suddenly, all our power came on. Relieved, I started laughing. Right when I thought I would never see the light of day, there was hope.

"It worked!" Josh laughed in disbelief. Beck pulled Josh to her and kissed him. I smiled, happy that she had finally made her move. I kissed Zimsky, and we got back to our seats, ready to get back home.

"Get ready to pull a few G's." Beck warned. Instantaneously, Virgil was flung forward. Beck was right. We did pull a few G's.

"As long as we can surf these magma flows we'll be okay." Beck stated. "Let's just pray we don't run into any dead ends, or we're going to miss those lasers." Suddenly we reached a fork in the road.

"Okay, Navigator. Which way?" Beck asked Josh.

"We've got greater fluid density on the left." he added with a smile. "Go with the flow." We looked at the screens to see two tectonic plates moving too close for our liking.

"They're closing in on us too fast, I don't know if we can..."

"We've got it." I said, trying to keep Beck confident. We had come this far. We weren't going to lose now.

Chapter 10: Saved by Whales

Four Hours Later, Pacific Ocean

As Virgil came up from the enclosed surface of the earth, the lights and electronics died immediately. Virgil hit the bottom of the ocean, completely motionless. We weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Where'd our power go?" Beck asked.

"Well, we were powered by the heat." Josh said, flipping a few dead switches. "It's stone cold down here. Well, look on the bright side." Josh smiled sadly. "At least we're not going to boil to death." I laughed and rolled my eyes.

"You always look on the bright side?" Beck asked him.

"Always." Beck turned to face all of us as Zimsky and I walked to the front of the ship again and sat down.

"All right now, let's assess: we've got no communications. We're probably eight hundred feet down, but we might as well be eight hundred miles. We're in a Unobtainium cigar tube with the sonar signature of a rock. We've got just enough power to make the ultrasonics burp, but no one's listening on those frequencies anyway, and nobody even knows we're alive."

"Okay. Give me a minute on this one."

Off the Coast of Hawaii

Purcell had 'rented' out an armed aircraft carrier to obtain their fallen heroes, or what some believed was left of them.

"This is hopeless."

"Come on General, we've got to be getting close." Rat had come along, why or how he didn't know. He was almost certain the kid had stowed away, but officials assured him that Rat had had permission to board. Something he'd noted to check into later. "We can't just..."

"Mr. Rat, even if they were still alive, there's no way they could contact us-" A phone rang.

"Bridge."

Sounds like a good reason to look harder. Rat thought to himself. The man who answered the phone looked over at the arguing pair.

"Skipper, Combat relays that our sub has something on the sonar."

"Where do they think-"

"Bill, put it up on the hydrophone." Rat interrupted. Bill did just that. They waited in eagerness for a few seconds before the sound resonated through the station.

"Whales, sir."

"They're a long way off their usual path," the Captain commented. "But that's not uncommon since that; uh...what are they calling it? Orbital wobble?"

"Yeah, that's what they call it." Purcell stated. "Well, thank you very much Captain, but I think we're done here."

"General." He saluted. Purcell returned it and left the station, his frown deepening with every step. Rat watched him leave, angry and hurt. He'd let Josh and Pandora down. Sure, he had been able to hack into DESTINI and divert the power, but apparently that hadn't done much good.

"J.O. This is the Captain. Stand down from SAR Operations."

Purcell stood and waited calmly with Stickley. He eyed Rat walking across the landing strip as they awaited their chopper to land to take them home. It wasn't going to be a happy journey.

Rat stared at the rotating propeller on the chopper for long minutes. Everything was lost. He felt so useless. Of all things, Rat had failed at the one thing that was inexcusable. Failed at the one thing that was the most important. He had failed his friendship to Josh, his promise to lead them safely out of there. The promise Rat had made himself when Josh alone stuck up for him in front of the others, taking on Purcell, Zimsky, Pandora, and even the doubts of his French friend, all because he had trust in him. He had failed. That was the worst feeling in the entire world.

Yet, as he stared at those spinning propellers, something happened. A spark ignited in the technologically advanced brain of the young man who had thought he'd lost everything, and soon realized that it was all just a little further away then they'd expected. He turned and bolted down landing strip, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"It's whales! Its whales! Hey! General! Stick! Its whales! The ultrasonics! They're singing to them! You gotta find the whales!"

A few specialists took a chopper and flew it over the strongest resonance point where the whales were singing. Some divers broke the water surface and sunk a few yard below to get a better observation of the process taking place. One looked to the other and gave a thumbs up. Nothing could go wrong now as Virgil broke from the shadows of the underworld to greet the light of day.

_Virgil_

"When I get back I'm taking a vacation." I said as Zimsky and I walked into the living quarters, laying down on some cots. The ultrasonics had worked; the ship was now being pulled from the deep depths of the dark ocean. I couldn't wait to stand on dry land.

"Where are you going?" he asked with an interested smile.

"I don't know. The Caribbean, Bahamas...or maybe even Hawaii."

"Well if you get lucky maybe that's where we'll come up at." I laughed.

"An immediate vacation. Sounds nice." Now that imminent death wasn't an option, I felt better. I thought to the beginning of the trip, with how fearful I'd had been. I had succeeded; Zimsky and I were alive.

"So, what's next for you?" I asked Zimsky, and he smiled.

"You," I sat up, curious. "Pandora, will you marry me?" I looked at him in amazement, not expecting the question. I thought to Trent, and realized that I had messed that relationship up because I was young and unsure. This one would work. I would make sure of it.

"Yes." I said simply and kissed the man of my dreams. We broke apart, smiling.

"Mrs. Zimsky." I laughed. "What?"

"Like the world needs another." This was it. The world was saved.

A happy ending.

My happy ending.

FIN


End file.
